January 31, 2012 CRIM-O-NETTLY over 21 days without a ride on this horse. She seemed no worse for wear but for some behavior issues revisited during the first six miles. Then fine...I hope we are back onto a trend. The time is way off on this because I forgot to turn the Garmin off.
January 10, 2012
January 9, 2012
A short hill & trotting session. Speed averages are slow because we walk the downhills, and then trot the uphills.
HITTING THE WALL
I've kind of experienced this "thing" with both of my horses. I ride very VERY conservatively so it is not a speed thing burning out their glycogen, nor is it an anaerobic thing as we walk, and we trot. It happens at around twelve miles, the energy sort of flags out... my horse seems to need a different source of energy/feed. This will be a bit more difficult with Journey as she has hoof sensitivity (getting better, but...) I feel I will have to be very careful with grains. She is eating a low NSC feed, and I'd like to keep her protein in the 10-12% range, no molasses added...so all I can think of that might fit the bill is oats, only on work days. Just thinking to myself here. While I'm thinking, I'm so OVER riding in the mud. It makes a twelve mile workout more like a twenty mile work out for Journey, which may indeed be the bigger part of the issue!
January 7, 2012 added mileage for today.
January 7, 2012
January 6, 2012 Trying out another hill, this one grassy. Though this one doesn't have much of a climb, it was a long field with a gradual upward slope. It took about 17 reps to get her pulse to kind of hang. She had a good workout though. Took a full ten minutes to pulse down to 60.
January 3, 2012 Just a loosening up ride to hold us until I can get her out on Friday.
January 2, 2012
December 31, 2011 Course A at VSP. Oh my gosh the mud...
Summary VSP: Course 1, trail A comparison chart.
| Distance | 12.61 mi | 12.60 mi |
|---|---|---|
| Time | 2:38:33 | 3:01:26 |
| Avg Speed | 4.8 mph | 4.2 mph |
| Avg Pace | 12:35 min/mi | 14:24 min/mi |
| Calories | 1,331 C | 1,234 C |
Dec. 25, 2011
Dec. 24, 2011 Today we worked on sustained trotting, worked our time up to 50 minutes (plus warm up and cool down). She rode great today since we were working at home in the front lot. Though it was cold, and the footing muddy, she never offered to quit which is definitely in the plus column. Her working heart rate was running 113 bpm at the trot, the highest it got was about 127 during the session. Today the heart rate monitor worked and the GARMIN took an electronic dive in the cold. Even though it should hold a charge for 12 hours, in the cold I'm getting about 2 hours. Journey seems to respond well to wet saddle blankets, and not so well when she isn't getting work. Maybe that dominant mare thing....I dunno!
Dec. 23, 2011 *Bang, bang, bang, BANG, BANG! (Sound of head pounding on desk). It has done nothing but rain, and rain, and rain (kind of like my head above only wetter). The hills are slick, the footing is deep, and Journey is not getting what she needs. I did ride today, but it was mostly correcting behavior. My heart rate monitor refused to work. Started out working fine until we got out there where I needed it, and nope! Three dismounts, adjusting, even spitting on the damned thing.
Dec. 20, 2011 We worked at in hand trot-outs today. It is pretty wonky! She was starting to get it, but so far I have to have the longe whip as a cue.
Dec. 18, 2011 Journey did flat work today. Working at building her at the trot, general straightness, and moving in a relaxed sort of frame. You will notice one major deviation from the route.... occasionally she decides to drive. But I'll tell you one thing about this little horse. She doesn't quit. At no point on her first five mile trot did she offer to quit. She actually was trotting faster at the end (7mph) than at the start (5.5mph).
Dec. 17th, 2011: The Garmin suffered a cold weather power outage today so I was unable to map, or record average speed. Journey is not benefiting from the extra hours and weird hours I've been working so far this month. She is not a once a week kind of horse. She was acting like she'd been snorting rocket fuel today. I've never seen a horse with a "temper" before. Phebes would react out of lack of confidence or fear. Journey decides at some point that she wants to go home and pitches herself a royal spotted FIT. I found out today during the Journey does the driving portion that she can spin faster than a reining horse, I was so dizzy my eyeballs were crossed by the time my brain kicked in and the rein was adjusted to disengage her hind end. She also had a three bucking fits because she wanted to canter up a muddy hill, and I insisted she trot. After a few long upward reps she tired of bucking though...and going on a loose rein. Thank God for the little things ☺
Dec. 16th, 2011: Journey and I officially have a "ride coach." I'm pretty pleased with that, and especially the performance history of the horse this person trained. I'm keeping the who to myself. This person will be my single go to source to sign off sort of on our weekly/ monthly conditioning goals, booting, and short-term competition goals (which involve mileage, not placement). It is going to take a while I'm sure. I feel that this is a step in the right direction for us in that it will give what we do more clarity. I'm not planning on asking opinions anymore, folks have too many of them! The simple things I have worked out such as saddle, pad, bridle, bit choice. The areas that are murky and grey involve:
* Training issues (unrelated to endurance directly, but indirectly related). These will fall in the horse trainer lesson persons area. I need to schedule another personal clinic with Michaela for these immediate issues.
- Our hobbling session (I'm doing the pre-work now).
- Under saddle work on walk, trot, canter, WHOA.
- Eventually rating her trot from slow to fast.
*Building my horse safely, slowly, and incrementally as an athlete (coaching). I know the mechanics of that, but tend to over-think, over train, and get to mentally caught up in analyzing everything. A coach will say, yes, or no, and that's just the way it is going to be!
- Immediately to be addressed are hoof booting the fronts to get more optimal fit.
- Building Journey's LSD base.
- Tweaking her feed if it becomes necessary (will fall to an endurance veterinarian).
- Adding strength training.
- Lastly building cardio fitness.
Do I know "how" to do those things? Yes I do. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE. But I want to do them better.
********************
Dec.13, 2011: This portion of my blog is actually a journal, a place for me to brainstorm, basically with my self about how I feel about Journey or her progress on a particular day, or week, or month. I think about our future (or not) a lot. Some days I just want my Phebes back, doing what we did, how we did it. Other days I see Journey as a horse with potential. She will never be the powerhouse that Phebes was, which is probably a good thing for her longterm well-being. I'm spending a lot of my current free time thinking how to start Journey in such a way that we don't repeat the past, since I see some of those racy horse brain tendencies in her as well. In fact she may be worse in that respect. I'd like to think we could attempt some extremely slow rides next year, and learn to camp, and eat, and drink, and, and, and. but I always come back to the truth, it will come in its own time, and there will be no forcing it. I know plenty of people who have had similar problems starting their horses in the sport that I have (the race brain thing). In fact someone yesterday told me that her first competition on her current horse resulted in "bloody hands" from holding that horse in and fighting those first 25 competitions miles. She told me of a man in her region that had a runaway (and rode it) for the first season before he figured out how to fix it. Some of my blog buddies encountered similar issues to mine, and it seems they have more or less solved them by increasing their distance, and letting the horses settle into a bit faster pace than I care to ride, or changed out their bits for better control, or, or, or... That is not a judgement call on how they settled their problem, but rather a good for you! Because they found a way to work through it and still have a horse at the end of the day. I'll figure it out, I'm persistent if nothing else. The one thing I have been doing is a change of direction every time Journey breaks out of gait. We can spend a long time covering three miles some days. We also weave in and out and around trees a lot. If her mind starts focusing out, rather than with, I step up the intensity required to attend to the present task at hand. It seems to work, but has not been tested in a group of horses yet. I think about my long-term goals for her, and can never settle on any.
Dec.12, 2011: Today I fed Journey a cookie, scooped out her stall, and fed her. That is it. But I wanted to talk a bit about her future training towards possibly being a distance horse (of some distance or other). Journey is a really sweet horse until she decides she's done and going back home. We've made a lot of progress, and when she decides to check out from our partnership things get dicey, but it doesn't take too long to convince her that fits are free and a lot of extra work! But I in my high-strung-ness (I love the person who labeled me with that) sometimes loose patience. I kept thinking how can I change this horse...how on earth can I change this, and frustration would multiply incrementally with each little rebellion. I decided this past week to check into a different mind-set in regards to this horse. Let's call it "don't worry, be happy." Say we ride out for an hour and five or ten minutes of that
Dec. 11, 2011: Our work today was varied, but I found it satisfying. Journey spent some time tied to the trailer and we worked on some de-spooking exercises. She was terrified of a milk jug that had a rock in it, and an empty water bottle being kicked around on the ground. So we spent about an hour kicking water bottles, bleach bottles, feed containers, and finally getting to the point that I could use them as grooming tools rubbing her all-over. Then I tied her up to the trailer again, and went into the house for her clean Skito pad and flopped her with that until she wanted to stand still. Finally she was saddled up and we rode some slow hills. The ground was frozen, and she went bare and did very well! No head dipping on the rocks or at the trot. LSEGH's hoof management is beginning to pay off. We had a good day ♥
Dec. 10, 2011: We've had a lot of rain and accomplished very little over the past seven days. Today though I did get her out and work at Karen C.'s desensitization with a cotton rope around all four legs, lifting each leg and gently placing it down. Also walking her forward by her front legs. She did really so much better than my expectation. I'd tell her "good girl!" and she'd yawn, and lick, and chew. I'm still undecided on which type of hobble we will buy, so for now we will work with the rope.
Dec.3: Today we mapped the home course. I'm a little bamboozled because the read out on my Garmin said 10.6 miles, but then when I uploaded it dropped a mile. Can't figure it out. But we have mapped our home route for the purpose of comparison. Pulse after we quit was 54 bpm, weight 849. She drank well on trail, and was willing to grab grass. Once we got home all she wanted was with the others, and would not eat her hay or feed. I'll give her a bit of extra chow tonight. Behaviorally she was pretty "up". The first half of the ride was full of imagined terrors. The second half was much better. Once we started climbing a few hills, she quit looking for monsters.
Nov. 26: We hauled Journey away from home today to see if her behavior problem would persist in a setting away from proximity to the barn. She rode today on a loose rein at least 98% of the time. She broke gait a couple of times, was corrected, but that was about it. The only thing she gets google-eyed about are downed cedars. The course was mapped today at 12.6 miles. This was my route when Phebes was in training and we'd go out and back as one lap, take a break, and go out and back for another eventually peaking at 25.2 miles. I'll probably map an alternate course to work on hills, but it will have to be closer to home.
Nov. 25: This ride began as an attempt to map a 10 mile road course at the walk. Instead it turned into a couple hours of not breaking gait correction, and bending around trees. Journey did not have a stellar ride today. Going out she was spooky and hesitant, but we were getting the job done in between crisis management. It was very windy, and she was flighty, and bothered by things she has been ho-hum about in the past. Basically the buddy sourness rearing its ugly head today. When we made it to state rd 48 I turned her for home, and then all unholy hell broke loose. We did near constant one rein disengagements almost all the way home. I abandoned the black top finally and took to the woodland trails, circling trees in alternating directions most of the way home. Where you see the little rectangle on the bottom right that looks like it is almost solid, that is where we worked in between the trees as she had been wanting to bolt in the field. We spent quite a lot of time there, then forded the creek which was about girth deep, and pointed towards home. As soon as she heard Cree holler, it was back to the races, and more one-rein disengagements. I clipped her up in the barn and she is going to stand in there awhile for the sake of learning some patience since she was foot stamping and wanting loose. We are a million miles away from the goal. ~ E.G.
Nov. 21-23: Work, work, work, work, work! No ride time. Barely time to get the critters fed and the stalls cleaned. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving. Maybe....Friday will belong to me. Looking at Journey last night I noted how she is filling out. Her topline is "almost" there, meaning we are using those muscles. She has some definition in her chest muscles, but the muscle tone----ahhhhhh.....it is lovely. We will get back to some bitting exercises next ride, and maybe explore a new route, or map a course on an old one. ~ E.G.
Nov. 20, 2011 Exploring corn field perimeter for possible partial training course:
As the weather turns from fall to winter I'm trying to explore where we will train, and develop a course for winter training. Footing out here is always an issue, as is the water level on the creek crossing. At times the creek is deep/flooded with strong currents, or has ice cover with flowing water beneath. We can't depend on that crossing during our conditioning or training in these instances. So we are puttering around looking for places that we work during these times. So the Garmin maps aren't going to show much for awhile. This also is giving me opportunity to address her herd sour issue since we stay pretty close to home (what I call the "morphic" bubble). Once Journey is about a half mile out behavior problems pretty much cease. As soon as you creep into the bubble, you better have your big girl panties on. She can hear Cree screaming his head off. I have been giving thought to excising Cree's vocal cords (kidding). But anyway, the corn field perimeters might be really nice for us to enlarge our training area when the creek crossing is not possible. The one I did today isn't all that big, but there is another behind it which would double it, and one beside it which would give me some more. It is all flat, but when the ground isn't muddy would give us a place to trot (other than pavement). When I figure out a course I'll ride it slow, and then save it so I will have a comparison on my calender and can see progress as we go.
Nov. 20, 2011 HOOF TRIM:
Journey had her front hooves trimmed. Trimmer reports left front still has a bit of an under-run heel, but improving over time. Front hoof concavity improving overall. Flare on the hind hooves appears mostly resolved, as hind hoof is maintaining normal spade shape and even wear between trimming cycles.
Nov. 19,2011 THE MYLER CRADLE BIT:
Journey was bitted again today with MYLER. I'm absolutely amazed how much more responsive she is and how quickly I can get her attention when things get dicey. Her one rein stops are pretty darned quick and none of that crazy neck bracing where she'd lock up and "nu-uhhh not doing it." I can get nose to girth with two fingers sliding down the rein. I feel reasonably competent at the walk, but very unsure of myself at the trot. Having not used a bit before really, I'm worried about where to put my hands, and how to use my hands. I'm going to have to make another trip to The Circle M Ranch and have Michaella give me some feed back. I love the softness and I don't want to ruin that with clutchy hands. Michaella! (oh, she can't hear me she's twenty-five miles east of here). ~ E.G.
NOV. 19, 2011 TESTING THE GARMIN :
In training for AERC Limited Distance and eventually ACTHA. Registered with the American Appaloosa Horse Association & the Appaloosa Sport Horse Association.
14.1 hands (barely)
Bay Roan Appy/Arabian cross with spotted rump.
JR SPIRIT JOURNEY
